Abstract:

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for payment
processing and employee compensation disbursement. Employee compensation
is determined and disbursed into virtual accounts associated with
corresponding employees, so as to avoid costs associated with traditional
check distribution. Employees are provided with a means for accessing
funds stored in their virtual accounts and utilizing such funds in a
variety of possible manners, where employers are provided with the
benefit of the float on the employee compensation funds until the funds
are actually retrieved by the employees from their virtual accounts.
Incentives are also provided for employees to use funds in their virtual
accounts to purchase products, merchandise and/or services back from the
employer company, so that the company employer further benefits from
increased sales and the ability to retain funds allocated to virtual
accounts.

Claims:

1. A method of processing employee compensation payments comprising:
receiving information relating to compensation disbursements to be paid
to one or more employees; providing an indication of available funds
corresponding to a compensation disbursement to be paid to an employee
into at least one virtual account associated with said employee, wherein
each virtual account includes only an indication of available funds but
does not include actual funds transferred from a payment source; and
providing said employee with a plurality of possible alternatives for
accessing and utilizing the funds indicated as available in said
employee's virtual account.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing said employee with
an opportunity to make purchases back from the employee's employer using
funds available in employee's virtual account.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing said employee with
incentives for making purchases back from the employee's employer using
funds available in employee's virtual account.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing said employee with
the ability to select one of the following possible alternatives for
accessing and utilizing the funds indicated as available in said
employee's virtual account: maintaining the available funds within the
virtual account; transferring funds from the employee's virtual account
to a bank account; or transferring funds from the employee's virtual
account to a value bearing device or instrument.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing said employee with
an opportunity to transfer funds from the employee's virtual account to
another virtual account.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the compensation
disbursements of the employees to be paid.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the amount of a compensation
disbursement for an employee is determined based on a purchase
transaction facilitated by the employee.

8. A payment processing apparatus comprising: a computing platform
including at least one processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores
and maintains data comprising at least one employee virtual account; and
computer code stored in the memory and executable by the at least one
processor and operable for: receiving information relating to
compensation disbursements to be paid to one or more employees; providing
an indication of available funds corresponding to a compensation
disbursement to be paid to an employee into at least one virtual account
associated with said employee, wherein each virtual account includes only
an indication of available funds but does not include actual funds
transferred from a payment source; and providing said employee with a
plurality of possible alternatives for accessing and utilizing the funds
indicated as available in said employee's virtual account.

9. The payment processing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the computer code
is further executable by the processor and operable for providing said
employee with an opportunity to make purchases back from the employee's
employer using funds available in employee's virtual account.

10. The payment processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein the computer
code is further executable by the processor and operable for providing
said employee with incentives for making purchases back from the
employee's employer using funds available in employee's virtual account.

11. The payment processing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the computer
code is further executable by the processor and operable for providing
said employee with the ability to select one of the following possible
alternatives for accessing and utilizing the funds indicated as available
in said employee's virtual account: maintaining the available funds
within the virtual account; transferring funds from the employee's
virtual account to a bank account; or transferring funds from the
employee's virtual account to a value bearing device or instrument.

12. The payment processing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the computer
code is further executable by the processor and operable for providing
said employee with an opportunity to transfer funds from the employee's
virtual account to another virtual account.

13. The payment processing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the computer
code is further executable by the processor and operable for determining
the compensation disbursements of the employees to be paid.

14. The payment processing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the amount of a
compensation disbursement for an employee is determined based on a
purchase transaction facilitated by the employee.

15. A computer program product, comprising: a tangible computer readable
storage medium including computer-executable instructions executed by a
computer system, said computer-executable instructions comprising: a
compensation disbursement module including a first set of instructions,
executable on said computer system, for causing a computer to receive
information relating to compensation disbursements to be paid to one or
more employees; a virtual account module including a second set of
instructions, executable on said computer system, for providing an
indication of available funds corresponding to a compensation
disbursement to be paid to an employee into at least one virtual account
associated with said employee, wherein each virtual account includes only
an indication of available funds but does not include actual funds
transferred from a payment source; and the virtual account module
including a third set of instructions, executable on said computer
system, for providing said employee with a plurality of possible
alternatives for accessing and utilizing the funds indicated as available
in said employee's virtual account.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, said computer-executable
instructions further comprising a fourth set of instructions, executable
on said computer system, for providing said employee with an opportunity
to make purchases back from the employee's employer using funds available
in employee's virtual account, where said employee is provided incentives
for making purchases back from the employee's employer using funds
available in employee's virtual account.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, said computer-executable
instructions further comprising a fifth set of instructions, executable
on said computer system, for providing said employee with the ability to
select one of the following possible alternatives for accessing and
utilizing the funds indicated as available in said employee's virtual
account: maintaining the available funds within the virtual account;
transferring funds from the employee's virtual account to a bank account;
or transferring funds from the employee's virtual account to a value
bearing device or instrument.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein said fifth set of
instructions are further executable by said computer system for
transmitting instructions to a financial institution terminal to debit
from a company trust account an amount less than or equal to an amount
stored in the employee virtual account.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein said fifth set of
instructions are further executable by said computer system for
transmitting instructions to a value-bearing instrument issuer terminal
to issue said value bearing device or instrument to the employee, said
value bearing device or instrument having an identifier associated with
the employee virtual account and accessing funds in a company trust
account in an amount equal to or less than an amount stored in the
employee virtual account.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, said computer-executable
instructions further comprising a sixth set of instructions, executable
on said computer system, for determining the compensation disbursements
of the employees to be paid.

21. A payment processing system comprising: a merchant account computer
system for processing electronic purchases of merchant products and/or
services and for associating said electronic purchases with at least one
employee; an employee compensation determination system comprising: a
first computing platform including at least one processor and a memory,
and computer code stored in the memory of the first computing platform
and executable by its at least one processor and operable for determining
compensation to be disbursed to said at least one employee in connection
with said electronic purchases; and a virtual account payment system
comprising: a second computing platform including at least one processor
and a memory, and computer code stored in the memory of the second
computing platform and executable by its at least one processor and
operable for providing an indication of available funds corresponding to
a compensation disbursement determined to be paid to an employee into at
least one virtual account associated with said employee, wherein each
virtual account includes only an indication of available funds but does
not include actual funds transferred from a payment source; and providing
said employee with a plurality of possible alternatives for accessing and
utilizing the funds indicated as available in said employee's virtual
account, wherein said alternatives for accessing and utilizing virtual
account funds include (i) transferring funds from the employee's virtual
account to a bank account and (ii) transferring funds from the employee's
virtual account to a value bearing device or instrument.

22. The payment processing system of claim 21, wherein each employee is
capable of transferring funds from their own employee virtual account in
their own respective local currency of their geographic region without
requiring currency conversion.

Description:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent
Application Ser. No. 61/256,896, entitled "Novel Systems, Methods and
Machine-Readable Mediums for Payment Processing," filed on Oct. 30, 2009,
the contents which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The invention relates generally to the processing of payments and,
more particularly, to systems, methods and computer program products for
the processing payments and the disbursement of employee compensation.

[0004] 2. Background Discussion

[0005] Currently, company employees, agents and/or independent contractors
(collectively referred to herein as "employees") are typically paid by
checks issued to the employees. However, there are numerous disadvantages
associated with the use of checks to pay employees. Checks are costly to
issue in view of (i) the materials costs associated with the printing of
physical checks, (ii) the costs associated with mailing or otherwise
distributing checks, (iii) and the manpower associated with signing and
distributing the checks. Checks can also get lost or stolen, thereby
requiring time, effort and costs associated with replacing lost checks.
There are also escheatment issues associated with issued checks.

[0006] There have been some attempts at using prepaid debit cards as a
method of compensation. However, there are also disadvantages associated
with the use of prepaid debit cards. For example, a company compensating
employees using prepaid debit cards lose the float on the money paid to
the employees since the money is immediately withdrawn from the company's
bank account upon funding of the prepaid debit card. Since companies do
not get paid interest on money once it is transferred on to a prepaid
debit card, there is financial disincentive for companies to lose this
float period and have employee payments immediately transferred to
prepaid debit cards. It is also not uncommon for a certain percentage of
checks that are issued to employees to never be cashed, where employers
will typically gain the windfall of these uncashed checks (known in the
industry as "breakage"). However, with prepaid debit cards in which
payment is immediately made, employers never get the advantage of there
being unrealized funds paid to employees. There are also financial costs
associated with the use of prepaid debit cards, as employees often are
required to pay a monthly fee just to maintain the prepaid debit card
and, like checks, there is a cost to the employers associated with
issuing the prepaid debit cards.

SUMMARY

[0007] Systems, methods and computer program products are provided for
payment processing and compensation disbursement of employees and
independent contractors. In accordance with one or more embodiments,
employee compensation determinations are received and funds associated
with such compensation determinations are disbursed into virtual accounts
associated with respective employees. Employees are also provided with a
means for accessing funds stored in their virtual accounts and utilizing
such funds in a variety of possible manners. In one or more embodiments,
employees are provided with a value-bearing instrument in order to access
and utilize such funds.

[0008] In one or more embodiments, for each employee virtual account, the
employee may select to (i) maintain the dispersed funds within the
virtual account, (ii) transfer funds from the virtual account to another
account associated with the employee or otherwise receive payment based
on such funds, or (iii) purchase products and/or services from their
employer or another entity. In order to incentivize the employee to use
the funds in their virtual account to purchase products and/or services,
a company (e.g., the employer) may provide a discounted price for the
employee to purchase such products and/or services in this manner or
provide the employee with an increased commission paid on purchases
performed from their virtual account in this manner.

[0009] In one or more embodiments, by disbursing employee compensation
funds into virtual accounts associated with the employees, these employee
compensation funds may be maintained in a company trust account until
actually transferred by the employees into their own bank accounts or
otherwise used in exchange for products/services. This provides the
employer with the benefit of accruing interest on interim time between
when funds are made available in the employees' virtual accounts and when
the funds are used by the employees (i.e., the float time) and also
allows the employer to retain an advantage of retaining or using any
unrealized funds that remain in the employees' virtual accounts.

DRAWINGS

[0010] The features and objects of the present disclosure will become more
apparent with reference to the following description taken in conjunction
with the accompanying drawings and in which:

[0011] FIG. 1 is a block schematic illustration of a system for payment
processing and employee compensation disbursement in accordance with one
or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0012]FIG. 2 is a block schematic illustration of another system for
payment processing and employee compensation disbursement in accordance
with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0013]FIG. 3 is a block schematic illustration of yet another system for
payment processing and employee compensation disbursement in accordance
with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] In the description that follows, the present inventions may be
described in reference to one or more embodiments that facilitates
payment processing. The present inventions, however, are not limited to
any particular application nor is it limited by the examples described
below. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments may be apparent
to those skilled in the art and the general principles defined herein may
be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from
the spirit and scope of the inventions. Therefore, the description of the
embodiments that follow are for purposes of illustration and not
limitation.

[0015] Reference in this specification to "one embodiment", "an
embodiment", "other embodiments", or the like means that a particular
feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the
embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The
appearances of, for example, the phrase "in one embodiment" in various
places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same
embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually
exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described
which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly,
various requirements are described which may be requirements for some
embodiments but not other embodiments.

[0016] In accordance with one or more embodiments, systems, methods and
computer program products are provided for payment processing and
compensation disbursement of employees. As described herein, "employees"
may refer to company employees (e.g., W2 employees), agents (e.g., 1099
agents), independent contractors, and/or independent business owners or
distributors or any individual receiving compensation for work performed
for an employer. Referring now to FIG. 1, a block schematic illustration
of a system 100 for payment processing and employee compensation
disbursement in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present
disclosure is provided.

[0017] The system 100 includes an employer 102 that requires employee
compensation disbursements to be delivered to an employee 106, where such
compensation may be the form of monetary compensation, credits, rewards
or units that have some corresponding monetary value. The employer 102
determines what compensation is to be disbursed to its employees and
delivers the compensation disbursements to a virtual account system 104.
The virtual account system 104 utilizes the compensation disbursement
information received from the employer 102 to place corresponding value
into virtual accounts associated employees to be paid.

[0018] Employees 106 may then access their virtual account contained
within the virtual account system 104 and select the manner in which the
funds available in the employee's virtual account are to be handled. In
one or more embodiments, the employees are able to select from one or
more of the following available options for handling the funds contained
in their virtual account: (i) maintain the dispersed funds within the
virtual account; (ii) transfer funds from the employee's virtual account
to the employee's bank account 108; (iii) transfer funds from the
employee's virtual account to a value bearing device 110 or instrument,
such as a payroll debit card, FOB, a branded debit/credit card (e.g.,
Visa® or Mastercard®), an account stored on another device such
as a mobile phone, etc.; (iv) use funds available from the employee's
virtual account to purchase products, merchandise and/or services 112
from the employer 102 or another source; (v) issue a paper check 114
(although the costs associated with paper checks are intended to be
avoided by various embodiments described herein and such costs can be
charged to the employee 106 if such option is selected by the employee
106); or (v) transfer funds from the employee's virtual account to
another virtual account 116 or other type of electronic funds transfer to
another account.

[0019] In accordance with one or more embodiments, the use of the virtual
accounts described to compensate employees herein provides employers 102
with all of the positive benefits associated with issuing conventional
paper checks or prepaid payment cards without suffering the disadvantages
associated with such conventional practices. For example, the use of
virtual accounts eliminates the costs associated with issuing checks and
further eliminates the fees to employers 102 and employees 106 associated
with prepaid payment cards. Further, employers 102 can retain a float on
the money to be paid to employees 106 while these funds sit in the
virtual accounts of the employee 106. Employers 102 also retain the
advantage of using funds made available to employees 106 in their virtual
accounts but which are never used (e.g., similar to breakage when checks
are never cashed by employees but with the added benefit of never
incurring the costs associated with distributing the checks). Additional
advantages for employers 102 include reducing processing fees as much as
50% or more when employees 106 purchase product back from the employers
102 from their virtual accounts, since employers 102 will be charged less
processing fees for purchases made from the virtual accounts than the
credit card processing fees typically incurred from an original purchase.
Additional advantages for employers 102 also include the ability to
eliminate charge backs and the need for a reserve account. Employers 102
could also implement, at no additional cost, a turnkey loyalty program
(e.g., rewards program) for the company's employees and customers who use
funds available from the employee's virtual account to purchase products,
merchandise and/or services 112 from the employer 102 or another source.

[0020] Referring now to FIG. 2, a block schematic illustration of another
system 200 for payment processing and employee compensation disbursement
in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure is
provided. The system 200 of FIG. 2 is similar to that of the system 100
of FIG. 1 having been further modified to illustrate the effectiveness of
the system 200 in handling payment processing for employees receiving
commission payments (e.g., multi-level marketing companies).

[0021] In one or more embodiments, the system 200 includes a merchant
account 202 that handles the processing of electronic payment
transactions (e.g., credit card, debit card, electronic fund transfer,
etc.) associated with customer purchases. A commission engine 204
operated by the employer 102 then determines the appropriate commissions
or compensation to be paid to the employee (e.g., distributor for a
multi-level marketing company), where again the commissions may be the
form of monetary compensation, credits, rewards or units that have some
corresponding payment value. The compensation disbursements are delivered
to the virtual account system 104, which operates similarly as described
above in connection with FIG. 1 for allowing the employee 106 to select
the manner in which the funds available in the employee's virtual account
are to be handled.

[0022] In one or more embodiments, the system 200 further provides
employees 106 with the ability to purchase products, merchandise and/or
services back from the employer 102 associated with merchant account 202.
This methodology is particularly advantageous to the employer 102, since
the actual funds that are available for use in the employees' virtual
accounts are still in the possession of the employer 102 (e.g., in a
company trust account) and the employer 102 is able to always maintain
such funds associated with the subsequent purchases back from the
employer 102. The employer 102 may provide incentives to the employees
106 to purchase products, merchandise and/or services from their virtual
accounts in this manner, as this significantly reduces overhead and other
transactional costs for the employer 102 and this also promotes the
purchase of additional products, merchandise and/or services. For
example, the merchant account 202 handling the processing of electronic
payment transactions associated with original customer purchases may be
charged traditional credit card or debit card convenience charges (e.g.,
3-5% of purchase). In contrast, the employer 102 may only be charged a
fraction of this amount (e.g., 1%) in convenience charges for purchases
back from virtual accounts, where the employer 102 may choose pass along
some of its savings to the employees 106 that choose to purchase products
back from the employer 102 through their virtual accounts instead of
purchasing them through the front end using traditional credit card or
debit card methodologies. The savings may be passed along to the
employees 106 in the form of discounts, rewards or other incentives.

[0023] In one or more embodiments, the system 200 may employ a rewards
based system where the compensation disbursements in the employees' 106
virtual accounts are the form of units that have a corresponding monetary
value. When employees 106 purchase products, merchandise and/or services
back from the employer 102 from their virtual accounts, the employees 106
may be provided additional rewards points. For example, an employee 106
may receive compensation for certain customer purchases that occur
through the merchant account 202, such as receiving 1 unit of rewards
points for each dollar of purchased value (e.g., a multi-level marketing
distributor may receive commissions based on customer purchases and
receive such rewards points as a commission based on the value of such
purchases), where such units of rewards points will be stored in the
employee's 106 virtual account. For purchases back from the employer 106
using funds made available in the employee's 106 virtual account, this
same employee 106 (e.g., multi-level marketing distributor) may then
receive an increased level of rewards points for each dollar of purchased
value based on purchases from the virtual account (e.g., 1.5 units of
rewards points for each dollar of purchased value from virtual account
funds). This would incentivize the employee 106 to purchase additional
products, merchandise and/or services back from the employer 102 from
their virtual accounts as opposed to making similar purchases through the
front end using traditional credit card or debit card methodologies.

[0024] In one or more embodiments, employees 106 may further be provided
with the opportunity to transfer funds from other sources into their
virtual account so that the employees 106 can take advantage of the
benefits offered by the employer 102 in making purchases back from the
employer 102 through virtual account funds. For example, employees 106
may transfer funds into their virtual accounts from their bank account
108 through electronic funds transfer, from a value bearing device 110 or
instrument, from payment via a paper check 114, or from transfer via
another virtual account 116 or other type of employee account. One manner
for an individual to transfer funds into an electronic funds account is
described in U.S. Letters Pat. No. 7,177,830, the contents of which are
hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

[0025] In one or more embodiments, employees 106 may further be provided
with the opportunity to transfer funds from their virtual account into
the virtual accounts of other employees 106. For example, in the case of
a multi-level marketing distributor who received compensation placed into
his/her virtual account, the distributor may decide to transfer some of
their compensation into the virtual account belonging to another
distributor in their multi-level hierarchy as a further reward for their
sales efforts.

[0026] Referring now to FIG. 3, an exemplary block diagram of a system 300
for payment processing and compensation disbursement of employees is
illustrated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present
disclosure. The system 300 includes a merchant processor 302, an employer
server 304 or employer computing device, a virtual account server 306 or
virtual account system/computing device, a bank or financial institution
terminal 308, and a value-bearing instrument issuer terminal 310. The
components of the system 300 may be distributed over a network 312. The
network 312 may be an internet or intranet, or a combination thereof. The
network 312 may further comprise a wired network or a wireless network
(e.g., WiFi, CDMA, GSM, Bluetooth, etc.), or a combination thereof. For
example, the components of the system 300 may be selectively distributed
over the Internet as well as maintained within an intranet of an
organization. Employees 106 are able to connect to components of the
system 300 through computing devices that are able connect through
network 312, such as through their home computers, workstations, mobile
phones or PDAs or other types of electronic computing devices. Through
this connection, employees 106 are able to access funds available in
their virtual accounts and select the appropriate use thereof.

[0027] The merchant processor 302 may be implemented using mainframe
computers, minicomputers, personal computers, and the like. The merchant
processor 302 may be networked or otherwise coupled to a point-of-sale
terminal or register for receiving funds in payment settlement of a
purchase transaction. Information related to the purchase is relayed from
the merchant processor 302 to the employer server 304. The information
may be relayed in real-time, or periodically, such as once a day. In one
embodiment, the information may include the transaction amount and
employee identification information related to employees involved with
the purchase transaction (e.g., in order to track and credit appropriate
commissions based on the purchase transaction). The employee
identification information may include the employee(s) name or I.D.
number or other type of identifying information.

[0028] In one or more embodiments, the employer server 304 includes a
computing platform 314 including at least one processor 316, memory 318
and at least one input/output device 320. In one or more embodiments, the
memory 318 includes a compensation determination module 322 that is
operable to determine employee compensation that is due to be paid to
corresponding employees 106. The compensation determination module 322
may be used to determine the compensation of an employee for a
predetermined period, for certain transactions or for other payment
determinations. For example, compensation determination module 322 may
utilize employee payroll information stored in memory 318 or utilize
information received in connection with the merchant processor 302 (or
otherwise based on purchases associated with merchant account 202) to
determine the appropriate employee compensation that is due to be paid to
corresponding employees 106. For example, the compensation determination
module 322 may be used to determine the compensation of an employee 106
based on commissions from the purchase transaction. Hence, if an employee
gets a 5% commission on any products or services sold by the employee
106, the compensation determination module 322 will determine a payment
amount equivalent to $5 dollars for every $100 dollars in products or
services sold. As can be appreciated, the compensation determination
module 322 may be implemented by a third party provider in electronic
communication with the employer server 304 via the network 312. In this
manner, compensation determination module 322 alone or in combination
with other components of employer server 304 may perform the functions
associated with the commission engine 204 to determine appropriate
employee compensation or payments. At least one input/output device 320
is provided to allow communications with the network 312 and/or to
further allow inputs and control functions to be performed by a user of
the employer server 304 and/or to further allow certain display
functions.

[0029] In one or more embodiments, the virtual account server 306 includes
a computing platform 324 including at least one processor 326, memory 328
and at least one input/output device 330. In one or more embodiments, the
memory 328 includes a compensation disbursement module 332 and a virtual
account module 334. The compensation determination module 322 may be
operatively associated with the compensation disbursement module 332 to
allocate an amount in a company's trust account 340 to the employee 106
for compensation. The compensation disbursement module 332 receives a
record of the amount determined and/or computed by the compensation
determination module 322 for disbursing funds to compensate the employee
106 appropriately.

[0030] In one or more embodiments, the compensation disbursement module
332 may be operatively associated with the virtual account module 334 to
create and maintain virtual account record for each company employee. The
virtual account record identifies the amount owed to the employee for
compensation within the predetermined period. The virtual account records
may be stored in the memory 328 (such as virtual accounts 336) or in
devices external to virtual account server 306. As can be appreciated,
virtual accounts 336 may be used to accumulate funds for each employee
over multiple pay periods or transactions.

[0031] In one or more embodiments, the compensation disbursement module
332 and the virtual account module 334 may be implemented in a separate
computing device from the compensation determination module 322, as shown
in FIG. 3. Alternatively, the compensation disbursement module 332, the
virtual account module 334, and the compensation determination module 322
may also be implemented together in the same computing device (such as
entirely in employer server 304 or virtual account server 306) or all
separately in separate computing devices coupled locally or remotely over
the network 312.

[0032] At least one input/output device 330 is provided to allow
communications with the network 312 and/or to further allow inputs and
control functions to be performed by a user of the virtual account server
306 and/or to further allow certain display functions. Virtual account
server 306 may also be referred to herein interchangeably as virtual
account system.

[0033] In one or more embodiments, any portion of the employer server 304
or virtual account server 306 (e.g., components of memory 318, memory 328
or other components) can be provided or located externally from the
employer server 304 or virtual account server 306, either locally to such
servers or remotely over the network 312. The external data from an
external storage device can be provided in any standardized form which
the processors 316 and 328 can understand. For example, an external
storage device at a provider can advantageously provide information
related to the purchase transaction in response to requests from the
employer server 304 in a standard format, which the processor 316 of the
employer server 304 may then transform into a function call format that
the code module(s) can understand. The employer server 304 and the
virtual account server 306 may be a standard SQL servers, where dynamic
requests from the server builds forms from one or more databases used by
the employer server 304 and the virtual account server 306 as well as
store and retrieve related data in memory 318 or memory 328.

[0034] As can be appreciated, memory 318 and memory 328 may be used to
store, arrange and retrieve data. Memory 318 and memory 328 may be a
computer readable medium, which may be any mechanism that provides (i.e.
stores and/or transmits) information in a form readable by a processor.
Compensation determination module 322, compensation disbursement module
332 and virtual account module 334 may comprise information and
instructions stored in corresponding portions of memory 318 or memory 328
that, when executed by processor 316 or processor 326, allow the employer
server 304 or the virtual account server 306 to perform the functionality
described herein.

[0035] For the purposes of this disclosure a computer readable medium
stores computer data, which data can include computer program code that
is executable by a computer, in machine readable form. By way of example,
and not limitation, a computer readable medium may comprise computer
readable storage media, for tangible or fixed storage of data, or
communication media for transient interpretation of code-containing
signals. Computer readable storage media, as used herein, refers to
physical or tangible storage (as opposed to signals) and includes without
limitation volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable storage
media implemented in any method or technology for the tangible storage of
information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,
program modules or other data. Computer readable storage media includes,
but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other
solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, or other optical storage,
magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other
magnetic storage devices, or any other physical or material medium which
can be used to tangibly store the desired information or data or
instructions and which can be accessed by a computer or processor. In one
or more embodiments, the actions and/or events of a method, algorithm or
module may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/or
instructions on a computer readable medium or machine readable medium,
which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

[0036] In one or more embodiments, the virtual account module 334 may
transmit code instructions to the bank or financial institution terminal
308 for disbursement of funds to the employee 106 up to the amount
identified in the employee's virtual account 336. The bank terminal 28
may be used to access, control, and maintain bank accounts 338, including
at least one company trust account 340 and/or an employee bank account
342. In one embodiment, the at least one company trust account 340
collectively maintains the total funds needed to compensate the employees
based on the determinations made by compensation determination module
322. For example, if the company has ten employees, each being
compensated $5000 for a particular pay period or particular transaction,
the at least one company trust account 340 will have at least $50,000 in
the company trust account 340. Funds may be transferred from another
company account to the company trust account 340 to cover for the funds
needed for employee compensation. It may be appreciated that the employee
bank account(s) 342 may be located at a separate banking institution or
location from the company trust account 340 and may thus utilize a
separate bank terminal 308.

[0037] As described herein, in accordance with one or more embodiments,
the employee 106 is provided with several options in accessing the funds
maintained in his/her virtual account. The employee 106 may buy a product
or service from the employer 102 or another company using the amount (or
a fraction of the amount) identified in the employee virtual account. If
an employee 106 buys a product or service from the employer 102, the cost
for the purchase transaction may be deducted from the total amount owed
in the employee's virtual account. The employee may alternatively select
to transfer the funds from the virtual account to another source, as
described herein, for use by the employee. Still further, the employee
may select to leave funds in the virtual account until a later date. For
example, commissions that are received by an employee 106 may be for
small amounts that are not sufficient for purchasing additional products
or services from the employer 102 or may not be worth the effort of
transferring the funds to another source, such that the employee 106 can
leave the funds in their virtual account until they accrue to a
sufficient value so that they can be used for other purposes.

[0038] In one or more embodiments, the employee 106 may also receive a
value-bearing device or instrument 344, such as a payroll card, a debit
card (e.g., a branded Mastercard® or Visa® debit card), a fob, a
handheld computing device capable of storing an account with value (e.g.,
a mobile phone, PDA, etc.) and the like. A value-bearing instrument
issuer terminal 310 may receive code instructions, such as from the
virtual account server 306 or employer server 304, to issue a
value-bearing instrument 344 with a certain value, for example, equal to
the amount identified in the employee's virtual account record. The
employee 106 may present his/her value-bearing instrument 344 to any
merchant to utilize the funds transferred thereto. For example, when the
value-bearing instrument 344 is a debit card, the debit card may be
swiped at a merchant terminal, such the merchant's existing debit card
terminal 302. As can be appreciated by a person skilled in the art, the
merchant may not need any special equipment, software or processor
cooperation. The merchant terminal may transmit an identifier associated
with the debit card and/or the employee virtual account, back to the
virtual account server 306 or employer server 304 via the network 312, to
deduct a purchase transaction amount from the total balance identified in
the employee's virtual account. As can be appreciated, the funds used to
pay for the purchase transaction may be withdrawn from the company trust
account 340, but may not exceed the amount allocated to the employee in
his/her virtual account record.

[0039] In one or more embodiments, employees receive an actual or virtual
card as the value-bearing instrument 344, such that the employer 102 may
directly deposit the employee's compensation to the card. The money does
not need to leave the company trust account 340 until actually used by
the employee 106 for a purchase, and as such, the employer 102 maintains
a float on the funds made available to the employee 106. Furthermore, the
employees 106 need not pay for monthly fees to maintain the debit cards
and the company may also retain any unused or unrealized funds (e.g.,
those typically retained when breakage occurs with checks).

[0040] In one or more embodiments, the systems, methods and computer
program products of the present disclosure may be utilized by
international companies with employees 106 in more than one country,
without having to deal with currency conversion. Currently, many
companies have a challenge with settling funds in the currency of the
country where they are doing business. This can be very costly in terms
of currency conversion rates. However, using the systems, methods and
computer program products of the present disclosure, companies can
process virtual accounts and/or debit cards in most countries and settle
in the local currency without requiring one or more currency exchanges to
take place, thereby representing a huge potential savings to the
companies.

[0041] For example, an employee of Dell® in Europe receiving a
commission on the sale of a Dell® computer to a resident of France,
where payment was made in Euros, may have a virtual account record of the
employee's compensation in Euros, and may withdraw the funds from the
company trust account 340 (associated with funds authorized in their
virtual account) in the equivalent of Euros. In one embodiment, the
company may have separate company trust accounts 340 for each country or
region the company is doing business in and/or in the foreign currency of
that country or region. Hence, when utilizing region-specific trust
accounts, the company trust account 340 for Europe may be set up in
Europe for maintaining and distributing funds in the Euro currency while
a separate company trust account 340 for the United States may be set up
in the United States for maintaining and distributing funds in U.S.
currency. As such, the company and the employee avoid the costs
associated with currency conversion rates, while still taking advantage
of all of the benefits associated with payment through virtual accounts
as described herein.

[0042] In this description, various functions and operations may be
described as being performed by or caused by software code to simplify
description (e.g., certain modules stored in memory 318 and 328).
However, those skilled in the art will recognize that what is meant by
such expressions is that the functions result from execution of the
code/instructions by a processor, such as a processor 316 or 326.
Alternatively, or in combination, the functions and operations can be
implemented using hard wired circuitry or special purpose circuitry, with
or without software instructions, such as using Application-Specific
Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
Embodiments can be implemented using hardwired circuitry without software
instructions, or in combination with software instructions. Thus, the
techniques are limited neither to any specific combination of hardware
circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for the instructions
executed by the data processing system. While some embodiments can be
implemented in fully functioning computers and computer systems, various
embodiments are capable of being distributed as a computing product in a
variety of forms and are capable of being applied regardless of the
particular type of machine or computer-readable media used to actually
effect the distribution.

[0043] Routines executed to implement the embodiments may be implemented
as part of an operating system or a specific application, component,
program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as
"computer programs" or modules. The computer programs typically include
one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and
storage devices in a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or
more processors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operations
necessary to execute elements involving the various aspects.

[0044] The executable software and data may be stored in various places
including for example memory, ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory
and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data may be stored in any
one of these storage devices. Further, the data and instructions can be
obtained from centralized servers or peer to peer networks. Different
portions of the data and instructions can be obtained from different
centralized servers and/or peer to peer networks at different times and
in different communication sessions or in a same communication session.
The data and instructions can be obtained in entirety prior to the
execution of the applications. Alternatively, portions of the data and
instructions can be obtained dynamically, just in time, when needed for
execution. Thus, it is not required that the data and instructions be on
a computer readable medium in entirety at a particular instance of time.
In general, a tangible computer readable storage medium includes any
mechanism that provides (i.e., stores and/or allows to be retrieved)
information in a form accessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network
device, personal digital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a
set of one or more processors, etc.).

[0045] In various embodiments, although some of the drawings illustrate a
number of operations in a particular order, operations which are not
order dependent may be reordered and other operations may be combined or
broken out. While some reordering or other groupings are specifically
mentioned, others will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art
and so do not present an exhaustive list of alternatives. Moreover, it
should be recognized that the stages could be implemented in hardware,
firmware, software or any combination thereof. The disclosure includes
methods and apparatuses which perform these methods, including data
processing systems which perform these methods, and computer readable
media containing instructions which when executed on data processing
systems cause the systems to perform these methods.

[0046] While the methods and systems have been described in terms of what
are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred
embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure need not be
limited to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended to cover various
modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and
scope of the claims, the scope of which should be accorded the broadest
interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar
structures. The present disclosure includes any and all embodiments of
the following claims.

[0047] It should also be understood that a variety of changes may be made
without departing from the essence of the invention. Such changes are
also implicitly included in the description. They still fall within the
scope of this invention. It should be understood that this disclosure is
intended to yield a patent covering numerous aspects of the invention
both independently and as an overall system and in both method and
apparatus modes. Further, each of the various elements of the invention
and claims may also be achieved in a variety of manners. This disclosure
should be understood to encompass each such variation, be it a variation
of an embodiment of any apparatus embodiment, a method or process
embodiment, or even merely a variation of any element of these.

[0048] Particularly, it should be understood that as the disclosure
relates to elements of the invention, the words for each element may be
expressed by equivalent apparatus terms or method terms--even if only the
function or result is the same. Such equivalent, broader, or even more
generic terms should be considered to be encompassed in the description
of each element or action. Such terms can be substituted where desired to
make explicit the implicitly broad coverage to which this invention is
entitled.

[0049] It should be understood that all actions may be expressed as a
means for taking that action or as an element which causes that action.
Similarly, each physical element disclosed should be understood to
encompass a disclosure of the action which that physical element
facilitates. Further, the use of the transitional phrase "comprising" is
used to maintain the "open-end" claims herein, according to traditional
claim interpretation. Thus, unless the context requires otherwise, it
should be understood that the term "comprise" or variations such as
"comprises" or "comprising", are intended to imply the inclusion of a
stated element or step or group of elements or steps but not the
exclusion of any other element or step or group of elements or steps.
Such terms should be interpreted in their most expansive forms so as to
afford the applicant the broadest coverage legally permissible in
accordance with the following claims.